Our Newest Plublication Our Backard and Beyond Vol8

 

We have just published the latest in our popular series of biographies of people who are buried in our local cemeteries and further afield, Our Backyard and Beyond Volume8.

Cemeteries included in this Volume:

Drayton & Toowoomba Cemetery – South Street
Toowoomba Garden of Remembrance – Ruthven Street, south
Aubigny Cemetery
Cabarlah Cemetery
Cooyar Cemetery
Clifton Cemetery
Crows Nest Cemetery
Evergreen Cemetery
Jondaryan Cemetery
Millmerran Cemetery
Oakey Cemetery
Pittsworth Cemetery
Ravensbourne Cemetery
Yarraman Cemetery

There are not just dry facts in these interesting stories of people who are mentioned in this latest in our series of those buried in the Toowoomba Area and further afield. This well indexed and illustrated volume includes the varied experiences of pioneers of district.

Ordering details on our Society webpage.

Save the Date! Open Day 8 Jan 2025

 

Just what sort of resources do we have in our library for the avid family historian? 

We are having a free open day on January 8th from 10am-12and we'd love to see you!

Come and see what we have to offer which are either unique or difficult to access elsewhere. We will have volunteers available to show you.

$5 if you'd like to stay on and use our resources for your research.

Let us show you what we have that's not available on-line. If you'd like to attend or want to know more please email us at tddfhs452@gmail.com

Our Latest Publication -August 2023

 

Our Latest Publication.

We have gone beyond our own backyard to include the interesting stories of people who are buried in cemeteries from around the Darling Downs.

 A full listing of contents can be downloaded HERE

Cost $25 plus Post and Package.

Enquiries 

 

Recently in our Members Discussion Group we talked about Land Settlement in Australia and the records created. At the time several of our members gave an outline of some of their research.

One of our group spoke at length about an interesting lease taken up by one of her relatives. The following are some notes about her research:

Her story follows:-

“Your grandfather won the block at Maclagan in a ballot!”

With only a statement like that how do you find out the information?

I had no idea what a ballot was but that was my starting point. This is from the Queensland Archives website:

Ballot: The Queensland Government released land to build communities in the fledgling state, wishing to encourage more intensive use of agricultural land to increase food production. When demand for land outstripped supply, the government used a lottery to allocate land fairly.

I soon discovered there were many types of ballots. My only information was his name and that he received land in a ballot.  I started with Trove Newspapers.

Finally after searching ‘Trove’ for months, I found a sentence in a report in the Daily Mercury (Mackay Qld), Saturday 9 July 1932, page 16: On The Land.  The newspaper gave me a date and the following sentence gave me the area and type of ballot and Philip Walsh was mentioned.  All the information I need to start my search.

‘For portion S3, parish of Rosalie, containing 320 acres, in the direction of Moola and which was opened at Toowoomba on Monday for prickly-pear development  and perpetual lease, there were 265 applicants.  Philip Walsh senior, of Kingsthorpe, won the ballot.’

I needed to find out about prickly-pear and the leases offered. The newspapers had many articles about the prickly pear in Queensland. The Land Acts were mentioned:     Land Acts 1910 to 1931, The Prickly-Pear Land Acts 1923 to 1931 and also amendment to the above Acts, these had information to explain the prickly pear development ballot.

It was suggested that I send an email to the Queensland State Archives asking if they had information on Philip Walsh. A very positive reply came back there was file with 65 pages in it!

 This warranted a trip to the Archives. 

The very first page in the file was the application for a Prickly-pear Development Selection.  This form puts the applicant’s name into the ballot.

At the land selection ballot events, numbered marbles (called ‘olives’) were placed in a locked ballot box in equal number to the applications for land received. The Land Commissioner then chose a non-applicant to draw marbles from the box using the extractor. For each block, the non-applicant would draw a marble and whoever held the corresponding number would be allocated that block. 

Reading the 65 pages I collected from the Archives gave the details of the 40 year Prickly pear Development lease from the application, to the final sale.

I had used maps from the Queensland folder in the TDDFHS Library but where exactly was it? This was answered by a gentleman who worked for Philip Walsh.  He drew a mud map with current directions. FAN (Family, Associates and Neighbours) came to our rescue.

Don’t discount any source for your search. Results do happen!

Further Reading:

https://www.daf.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0014/55301/prickly-pear-story.pdf

Interpreting School Admission Registers

 Following on from our last post about our School Admission Records in our Library Holdings we put together some notes on the use of the records.

Do you know how to milk every last bit of information from that school record you have just found?

 Here is how to interpret the information in the columns. Over the years there were different requirements in the information given. At first the information was given orally and later there was a form to fill in. When the child left the school to go to another school a transfer form with the information was filled out.

The admission register does not always follow the following format as the columns may come in a different order. The very early books do not show the name of the parent or a very detailed address. 

1919 Register

1877 Register 

Click on any of the images above to enlarge.

School Admission Registers

 

Early pupils Toowoomba North State School

Photo Coutesy John Oxley Library

We are lucky in Queensland in so far as so many of our public school students admission register have been deposited at the state archives. Over the years TDDFHS has purchased many of the registers and made them available to members and visitors. These include many small schools which no longer exist and many well outside our area.

We have an ongoing indexing project to ensure their easy accessibility.

The information on the registers has varied throughout the years but will include a date of enrollment ( and usually leaving), date of birth or estimate  of age, religion,  guardian or parent's occupation, (name in later rolls) and importantly their residence. Other children enrolled gives a snapshot of families in the district.

Link to .pdf  file of a listing of what is available at TDDFHS.

Image courtesy of QSA

Click on image to enlarge.

In the above register information included a note about the school closure due to the 1919 Influenza Epidemic. ( the Spanish Flu) A note against one child also indicates that he sat and passed the state scholarship examination to proceed to secondary school.

 We also know that the younger boys in  Class one were educated in the Girls and Infants part of the school, so it is worth checking information in those registers the year before.

Checking school registers can reveal so much about families!

In Our Backyard and Beyond - Our latest Publication

Our thanks to all the contributors for our latest volume about those who have been buried in not only our own Backyard but in other Cemeteries and Churchyards on the Downs. 

This is the sixth volume in the series.

The book is available in paper copy (stapled and bound) or on USB.

 200 pages, indexed, images.

 Cost $25

 Postage for the book is $15 (two copies can be posted together for the same price).

Postage for the USB is $4.

 Orders can be placed by email to tddfhs@westnet.com.au and paid for by electronic funds transfer. Copies can be bought in person Monday to Friday 10am to 3pm (cash preferred) at the research centre, 452 South St Harristown. 

Our Backyard Volume 5

 

Our Backyard Vol 5

In March 2021, we published the latest edition - Volume 5 of our popular series Our Backyard. For those who are not familiar with previous versions, they cover the stories and family backgrounds of various members of the the community who have been buried in the Toowoomba and Drayton Cemetery ( Our Backyard).

This volume also includes a list of those who have been described in previous volumes.

It has stories of over 150 people and is 162 pages long. Cost is $20

It's available as a book (plus $9.40 postage), USB or CD (postage $3.30).  

Men of Fire Iron and Leather

Our  Publication describes some of the Coachbuilders, Blacksmiths, Wheelwrights, Saddlers and Bootmakers who contributed to the early history of Toowoomba and the Darling Downs.

Similar in style to some of our previous publications with maps, photographs and other images. It is indexed.

More Details HERE

Price is $20.00 + $9.20 postage.

Email the Society if you wish to purchase a copy.

Contact Details 

In Our Backyard Volume 4

Our Society's latest publication is now available for sale!
Continuing our series on folk buried in the Toowoomba and Drayton Cemetery (our backyard), we have more stories of well known and less known individuals and families who have found their final resting place here.
Contributions are from society members.
A list of Contents.

Book is in A4 format with a soft cover and includes illustrations and an index.
Cost is $25 + $13.40 p & p
Payment can be made by Cheque or by Direct Debit.
Contact our secretary for bank details
tddfhs@westnet.com.au

In Our Backyard Vol 3 - Our latest Publication

Have you checked out our latest publication?

We now have for sale the third volume of  contributed stories of people buried in the Drayton and Toowoomba Cemetery.

This volume like those published before contains the interesting background information of a mix of well known and little known identities.

The book contains 266 pages including an index.Over ninety family groups are mentioned. It is fully illustrated.
Preview of Contents Pages

It is available now from the Society during office hours or can be ordered and mailed to your address by contacting our secretary.

Cost  now $10 + $13.40 p&p

Black Gully now available as CD

Our Black Gully Publication is now also available in .pdf format as a CD .

Price is $15.00 which includes postage and handling.

Toowoomba Chronicle Index 1937

As promised we have added another year of Toowoomba Chronicle Indexes! Thanks to our wonderful team of indexers we always seem to have an expanding data base of super indexed records at TDDFHS.

You will notice that all sorts of records are mentioned.

Check the Toowoomba Chronicle Indexes to the right of this page for links to download.

An Addition to our Online Indexes

On our list of Indexes to the right of this post, you will notice a link to an additional year [1936] for those listed for the Toowoomba Chronicle. Another year [1937] is in progress and will be added soon! If you would like a copy of the relevant article our contact details are below!

Our many indexes seem to be ever expanding as more data is added.

New Publication - Black Gully 1840 - 1914 The Manufacturing Centre of Toowoomba

Cover photograph showing the kilns of  the Old Maltings in Mort Street

Looking at the pleasant parkland that it is for the most part now, it is hard to realise that there was a thriving manufacturing area in Black Gully in Toowoomba.

Diana Beal has been investigating the people associated with this interesting part of our local history, their successes, failures and the development of industry in this mostly forgotten era. 

This was an area once located close to, without being within Toowoomba but now well within the City area. The book names those businesses and then later developers of the area into suburban blocks.

Includes index, illustrations and photographs.

You can read further information HERE

The A4 sized book is available now from the Society.

$15 + $5 package and postage.

Queensland Assisted Immigration Index Errors

A valuable resource for those researching Assisted Immigration into Queensland is the online index of Assisted Passengers for the period 1848-1912. This index has links to the digital images of Passenger Lists. http://www.archives.qld.gov.au/Researchers/Indexes/Immigration/Pages/Immigration1848.aspx

However the QSA states: ‘This index does not include all immigration records for the period. The records for the 1860s are incomplete because they were inundated in the 1893 floods. The registers held at Queensland State Archives were rewritten from the damaged originals during that period and contain errors. For example, as entries were "corrected" and overwritten at the time, some ships have two dates of arrival recorded. Additional research may be required to confirm details.’

Some of us have read this qualifying statement, but not thought about the implications for accurate research. Many of us have not even read it, assuming that a government produced record must be correct. 

TDDFHS member, Diana Beal, has proved the following errors:

* The list for the Young Australia 1862 voyage is in fact for the 1865 (29 May-20 Aug) voyage.

* The list for the Fiery Star 1864 voyage is in fact for the 1863 voyage (both arrived 20 Nov.)

Also our member Doreen found:

* The Dirigio of 1860 is mis-transcribed as the “Dingo”

 We would be grateful if anyone has proof of other errors, to please advise our TDDFHS secretary, so we can alert other researchers via our website and our journal The Gazette. The full transcript of Diana’s research is in the society’s latest journal.

Toowoomba's First Dawn Service

When was our first Dawn Service in Toowoomba?

It seems that many towns want to claim that the first Dawn Service was held on their patch. None more so than Toowoomba. For those who attended one of the many services held in the Toowoomba Regional Council area, they possibly would have noted that on page 12 of the Toowoomba 100th Anniversary Anzac Day Commemoration Service handout it says: "First Dawn Service in Australia conducted in Toowoomba, 25th April, 1922."

Open Day for Military Research Sunday 26 April 2015

Photo John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland Queenslander Pictorial supplement 27 Nov 1915 p 21

On Sunday, 26^th April we had an open day for WW1 Military Research in our rooms at 452 South Street, Toowoomba.

The day started at 9.0 am with a brief tutorial on using the digital resources held by the society, followed at 10 am by a demonstration focusing on digital records, tips and techniques for researching World War I military ancestors.

The Society has developed a file on military personnel who were born in Toowoomba and enlisted in WWI, as well as a file of those not born in Toowoomba, but who enlisted in Toowoomba. These files along with others relating to both world wars were available to research free of charge.

We have available at our South Street library, copies of the tutorial notes from the day.available for a fee of $3.00.
Visitors are always welcome within opening hours to research any of their Family History with the help of our Volunteer staff.

Now Available - Squatters of the Eastern Darling Downs 1840-1900s

Our latest publication, by Dr Diana J Beal, Squatters of the Eastern Darling Downs 1840 -1900s

is now available to purchase from TDDFHS.

Orders are now being taken by contacting the society.

Price $20 + p &p $13.50

Contains over 200 pages of fascinating information about some of the original holdings [and their owners] of our region.

If you had connections to any of these early stations, this will make interesting and informative reading!

More details on OUR MAIN WEBSITE

.

You can check out a .pdf file of the contents HERE

Extra Years of the Toowoomba Chronicle Indexed

Check out more of your family!

We have just added more years of downloadable indexes for our local paper the Toowoomba Chronicle.

1931

1932

1933

1934

1935

See links under Toowoomba Chronicle on the right hand side of this page.

Be aware that these later files have a lot of pages and may take some time for the .pdf file to load.

Once loaded, you can use the link at the top of the page to download.to your computer.

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